In the manufacture of microcircuits, it is often desired to have resist images which are resistant to thermal flow and which are also resistant to reactive ion etching. In the past, a large amount of research has been done to achieve either or both of these objectives. Some such work is show, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,201,800, 4,230,781, 4,259,421 and 4,439,516. See also CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS, Vol. 96:152832t and CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS, Vol. 97:153930f, both 1982.
The prior art methods have obtained some success but they still leave much to be desired, particularly in the area of simultaneously enhancing both the resistance to reactive ion etching and to thermal flow. The prior art also has not been very successful in the treatment of thick resists, particularly bilayer resists. Inspection of the cited prior art makes it obvious that none uses the alkyl metal compounds of the present invention.